Jeremy Hammond Sentenced To 10 Years In Prison For Hacking Into The Stratfor Website And Other Company, Federal, State, And Local Government Websites

Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced today that JEREMY HAMMOND, a/k/a “Anarchaos,” was sentenced in Manhattan federal court to 10 years in prison in connection with his role in, among other hacks, the December 2011 hack of Strategic Forecasting, Inc. (“Stratfor”), a global intelligence firm in Austin, Texas, that affected hundreds of thousands of victims, including employees and subscribers. HAMMOND was also sentenced in connection with his involvement in multiple additional hacks, including computer intrusions into the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Virtual Academy, the Arizona Department of Public Safety, the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association, and the Jefferson County, Alabama, Sheriff’s Office. HAMMOND pled guilty in May 2013, and was sentenced today by Chief U.S. District Judge Loretta A. Preska.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara stated: “As he admitted through his plea of guilty, Jeremy Hammond launched a series of computer hacks that stole confidential information pertaining to companies, law enforcement agencies, and thousands of innocent individuals. His sentence underscores that computer hacking is a serious offense with damaging consequences for victims, and this Office is committed to punishing the perpetrators of such crimes.”

According to the Complaint, the Superseding Indictment, the Superseding Information, and statements made in other public filings and in court:

In December 2011, HAMMOND and other members of “AntiSec” – an off-shoot of “Anonymous,” a loose confederation of computer hackers and others – hacked into computer systems used by Stratfor. HAMMOND and his co-conspirators stole confidential information from those computer systems, including Stratfor employees’ emails as well as account information for approximately 860,000 Stratfor subscribers or clients. HAMMOND and his co-conspirators also stole credit card information for approximately 60,000 credit card users and used some of the stolen data to make more than $700,000 in unauthorized charges.

In addition, at his guilty plea, HAMMOND admitted his involvement in multiple additional hacks, including: the June 2011 hack of computer systems used by the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Virtual Academy; the June 2011 hack of computer systems used by the Arizona Department of Public Safety, a state law enforcement agency in Arizona; the July 2011 hack of computer systems owned by Brooks-Jeffrey Marketing, Inc., a company based in Mountain Home, Arkansas, and various law enforcement-related websites; the August 2011 hack of computer systems used by Special Forces Gear, a company based in California; the August 2011 hack of computer systems used by Vanguard Defense Industries, a company based in Texas; the October 2011 hack of computer systems used by the Jefferson County, Alabama Sheriff’s Office; the October 2011 hack of computer systems used by the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association; and the February 2012 hack of computer systems used by the Combined Systems, Inc., a company based in Pennsylvania.

HAMMOND and his co-conspirators publicly disclosed some of the confidential information they had stolen from these various hacks, including personal information such as the home addresses of hundreds of current and retired law enforcement officers and financial information such as the credit card data of thousands of individuals.

HAMMOND, 28, of Chicago, Illinois, was sentenced in connection with his guilty plea to one count of conspiracy to engage in computer hacking. Restitution will be determined at a later date.